Dealing with One of Those Days

Over the weekend, I had one of those days. You know the kind where things just don’t work out. I love cooking and lined up a few meals to cook for the family. Breakfast was good. The family enjoyed the eggs, fresh hash browns, sausage and toast. Afterwards, I started peeling apples for some fresh cooked apple sauce. In the middle of peeling and cutting, I nicked my thumb with the paring knife. Blood flows reddest when there are things to do. I used a band-aide to get through the rest of the apples. During clean up, I spilled some water on the floor. Knowing I had to pick up an ingredient for another meal, we went to the store. The kids were bickering which is unnerving to say the least. We made it back from the store wanting to go our separate ways.

I started putting together a Quiche. I made the crust and prepped the ingredients. Ouch, second source of blood was found when I nicked my other thumb shredding some cheese. I spilled some half and half when mixing the Quiche ingredients. By this time, I was getting behind what needed to be done. Then I realized I didn’t plan out the cooking well and lunch would be 3pm instead of noon. So, what did I do? I started a second meal in the middle of the Quiche thinking I could whip out some poached fish by 1pm. To tide the family over, we had mini doughnuts, apple cider and some apple sauce.

While I was working away, I heard my wife trying to organize the kids to go for a quick walk before our late lunch. The bickering evidently hadn’t stopped. I could tell my wife was approaching the threshold of her last nerve. During final prep, I nicked my thumb for a third cut. I did manage to get the fish done, but burnt the Quiche along the way. To polish it all off, the kids didn’t like the fish. My wife and I thought it was okay but something not to repeat.

So what does cutting myself, spilling milk, spilling water, and burning food have to do with the business of you. We all have business we need to get done in any particular day. My business over the weekend included cooking numerous meals, but it didn’t happen as I intended. After cleaned up, I decided to clean and polish the stove top. This gave me time to reflect on what happened while scrubbing. Looking for the root cause I went through a couple of questions. Why did I burn the Quiche? I left it too long in the oven as I was distracted with the poached fish. Why did I get distracted cooking fish? I didn’t allow enough time to cook either the fish or Quiche. Why didn’t I allow enough time to cook? I didn’t plan out the meals including all the prep, cooking and cooling time. Why didn’t I plan out the meals? I didn’t plan things out because I thought I knew what went into the dishes having done similar things in the past. And herein lies one of the root causes. I assumed I knew what I was doing.

Relative to my business in the kitchen over the weekend, the lesson learned I took away is to not assume and look at the different meals with all aspects of time needed to get it done. Along another line questioning, I didn’t have all the ingredients so my weekly trip to the store was inadequate. I also didn’t give myself enough time to do what needed to get done. I stressed myself out and wound up nicking my thumb three times, spilling and burning things. Of coarse, we can’t predict when we will have “one of those days” and thus we simply need to give ourselves some slack when it does happen. After working our way through our trying times we simply need to let go and move on to the next order of business.